Preserve Muscle

ShellieFratellie

I was wondering if your able to lose body fat, while preserving or perhaps GAINING muscle by simply being in a caloric deficit while having a high protein diet?

cwolfman13

You can mitigate loss of muscle while in a calorie deficit by maintaining a reasonable deficit, adequate protein, and resistance training. Protein in and of itself isn't going to do it. Muscles are a use it or lose it kind of thing. You also don't gain muscle without challenging muscle to grow...ie resistance training w/progressive overload.

Retroguy2000

In addition to the above comments, it's more doable if you're new to weights so you get those beginner gains, and you keep the deficit small (say 10%), and you're overweight rather than quite lean.

ShellieFratellie

Thank you for the advice. I'm also fasting for 16-18 hrs a day, which has been going surprisingly well but I don't have the strength to train hard. (I only use resistance bands and small kettlebells). Idk if I'm considered a beginner at weights. Weight training/lifting, yes. But I grew up doing vigorous work, requiring to lift heavy objects, so I've always had a good amount of muscle.

sijomial

ShellieFratellie wrote: »

Thank you for the advice. I'm also fasting for 16-18 hrs a day, which has been going surprisingly well but I don't have the strength to train hard. (I only use resistance bands and small kettlebells). Idk if I'm considered a beginner at weights. Weight training/lifting, yes. But I grew up doing vigorous work, requiring to lift heavy objects, so I've always had a good amount of muscle.

Regarding the bolded..... Why is that?

If it's due to a large deficit that would be a really unwise choice given your desire to maintain or even gain muscle.

To gain muscle you do have to challenge your existing strength/musculature and bands and "small kettlebells" doesn't sound very promising I'm afraid.

ShellieFratellie

I don't have the strength because I'm fasting and have no fuel to push through weight lifting. I'm trying to lose body fat without losing muscle. Once I lose the body fat, I can see my body and see where I want muscle growth and then I'll start my bulk with more calories and weight lifting.

sijomial

ShellieFratellie wrote: »

I don't have the strength because I'm fasting and have no fuel to push through weight lifting. I'm trying to lose body fat without losing muscle. Once I lose the body fat, I can see my body and see where I want muscle growth and then I'll start my bulk with more calories and weight lifting.

How fast are you trying to cut because time restricted eating by itself should not be affecting you so badly?
If your eating schedule is affecting you so much it compromises your training (or perhaps preventing you from eating a sensible amount) it really isn't doing you any favours.

Lets reiterate the three aspects to losing fat while preserving (or even gaining some) muscle:

• Small calorie deficit.
• Effective training.
• High protein (in grams, not in percentages)

BTW - it's far easier, more efficient and ultimately quicker to preserve the muscle you have by cutting well rather than have to rebuild muscles after cutting badly.

ShellieFratellie

I try to aim for 18hrs of fasting then I eat about 1000 calories in like... a 2 hr window. Then a small snack before bed (100 calories)

My maintenance calories- 1400

Maybe I should only cut 200?

Idk, I'm short. So I already have a low calorie budget.

AnnPT77

ShellieFratellie wrote: »

I try to aim for 18hrs of fasting then I eat about 1000 calories in like... a 2 hr window. Then a small snack before bed (100 calories)

My maintenance calories- 1400

Maybe I should only cut 200?

Idk, I'm short. So I already have a low calorie budget.

How short, and currently weighing how much? 1100 calories is very low. If you have lots to lose, it's difficult to understand how your maintenance calories would be 1400. If you don't have lots to lose, then losing slowly is your best bet . . . especially if you want to retain muscle. In that latter case, yeah, it'd be better only to cut 200.

Even in a 300 calorie deficit, you shouldn't feel so depleted that you can't work out, it seems like.

sijomial

ShellieFratellie wrote: »

My maintenance calories- 1400

That sounds highly unlikely for a young woman TBH.

You would have to be tiny (so small you wouldn't have weight to lose) and completely sedentary and doing no exercise (which you are).
Try putting your stats into this calculator - https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/
(Unlike MFP choose an activity level that includes your exercise upfront.)

But yes - with a small calorie allowance you don't have the headroom to take a lot of calories off.

Feeling so depleted you can't exercise properly is a huge warning sign you aren't eating enough irrespective of your chosen eating schedule.
FYI - I did a different fasting schedule to you when losing (five days at maintenance, two days at just 600) but never felt depleted even on the low eating days as my overall calories gave me plenty of energy to workout.

driganezis

Let me speak for myself and my own experience. After loosing about 15kg of fat and dropping my bodyfat percentage from 33% to 16% focusing mostly in my cal deficit and a lot of walking, now my plan consists of gaining some muscle while still loosing some fat in order to achieve a 12% bodyfat. This means i am working out hard 3 times per week with resistance training (about 1 hour), still being on a slight calorie deficit (400 cals) in order to loose fat, moderate walking (35 min / 5 times per week). My diet consists of 35% protein, 40% carbs and 25% fat. What i see in the scale is that till now i am gaining slowly while loosing in my waist circumference. I am also in intermittent fasting (16/8) and as for the energy for your workouts the days i workout i add some extra cals which i substract from the rest days. This plan works fine for me till now.

ninerbuff

Unless you're really small (like under 5 ft tall), 1400 is REALLY LOW maintenance for someone who ALREADY has a physical job and is working out. You're under eating.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

ShellieFratellie

I'm exactly 4 feet and 11.75 inches short 😬
Current weight is 118lbs.

I used that calculator and got 1300. Fasting is confusing sometimes because I can't technically start my fast until my last bite of food is done. Which is something small before bed. But it's not filling at all and my last actual food intake was hours earlier. So it's like that one snack keeps me from being in a fasting state, yet my body feels like it fasts much longer than 18 hrs the next day. If that makes sense?

As far as low energy for workouts, I don't know whether I'm trying to lift too heavy (because it's supposed to feel challenging right?) Or if I just don't have the energy. My only opportunity to workout is around 2pm, but by that time, I'm well into my fasting and feel tired. I take BCAAs and preworkout but it does not get me pumped. At. All. Is your hour long workout pure working out? Mine only lasted 45 minutes, including warm ups, resetting the weights, etc. I did about 5 exercises (each about 3 sets, 12 reps). After I week of this, I just couldn't do it and switched to light resistance and walking.

I appreciate all the feedback, truly!

sijomial

Think I might have worked out where you are going wrong - you must be looking at the BMR number which is NOT maintenance calories.
BMR is just what you would burn at total rest and completely fasted all day - it's even lower than someone in a coma but being fed!
e.g. My BMR is 1,552 but my maintenance level for a day without exercise is 2,470 (exercise added on top of that).

You need to look at the TDEE (Total Dail Energy Expenditure) number which is about 1600 even picking "sedentary with little to no exercise" which doesn't actually sound high enough for you.
"Lightly Active with exercise 2 to 3 times a week" gives closer to 1900.

You are getting lost in the trivial importance weeds of fasting routines but ignoring that whatever eating pattern you have you simply are not eating enough to fuel yourself properly. Taking stimulents (preworkout) isn't the fix for your problem.

ShellieFratellie

Jeez, my TDEE is 1800 🪦

Thanks for pointing that out. 1100 calories a day was miserable. I'll have to adjust my macros and exercise regiment accordingly.

Thank you everybody ☺️

TicTacToo

Re what weights you can manage... here's my perspective as an overweight, unfit, middle-aged newbie who started strength training a few months back (so please defer to the experts here if what I say is wrong!)

I started on really light weights but they were sufficient that my second or third set of 12 reps was a struggle. (I could only manage 8 or 10 reps in my final set.) Starting low worked out well .. for exercises like lat pull downs or leg press I've been able to add more reps or more weight every week or two and as long as I warm up before and do some stretches after I usually get through 3 X 12 or 3x15 with my muscles feeling tired the next day rather than sore. Example - I started on 3x 15 @ 20kg for the leg press and 10 weeks later I'm doing 3x15 @ 60kg. If you are regularly struggling to get through a session at the moment, drop the weights down to where you can manage 3x12, just barely, then slowly build up again over several weeks.

ETA I've definitely gained some muscle doing this... I now have traps, delts, biceps and some half-decent quads reshaping how my clothes hang :-)